Tinubu: From Deception, Frustration To Confusion -By Gozie Irogboli

The feelers from the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu camp indicate that all is not well in his camp now what with the concatenations of many events that has taken place since his controversial emergence as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate and his many gaffes that seem to question his state of health and mind. The erstwhile Lagos State governor has declared his intention to contest for the highest office in the land apparently on the grounds of false sense of entitlement (emi lokan—it is my turn), the help of the power of incumbency and the dominance of the press and media propaganda as heretofore but the APC’s woeful performance in the last seven years, the declaration by Mr. Buhari, the incumbent president to conduct free and fair election, the inability of his media group to contain the amorphous social media tsunami, the Tinubu’s deteriorating health condition that his team has tried unsuccessfully to conceal from the public knowledge, the result of the Osun State gubernatorial election and many other issues that will be highlighted in this piece seem to confront them frontally putting his camp in a state of quandary. And Mr. Festus Keyamo, the erstwhile “social activist and advocate” the current Minister of State for labor under whom the country has witnessed the longest industrial action by the university lecturers and the Tinubu campaign spokesperson is having a herculean task playing the devil’s advocate, defending the indefensible.

Evidently, what is happening in the Tinubu camp now is outright confusion. The campaign for the 2023 presidential election has started officially since 28^th of September and Tinubu is nowhere to be found. He is yet to inaugurate his presidential campaign council and he was visibility absent during the signing of the peace accord by the presidential candidates of the parties. And there was no official explanation for his absence fueling the speculation that he was smuggled out of the country for medical treatment. And in another futile bid to explain the state of affairs concerning him, his campaign organization released a video of Mr. Tinubu purportedly riding on a treadmill in a gym in UK. But the opposition said it was an attempt to mislead and hoodwink members of the public since the said video was something that was aired 9 years ago when Tinubu was recuperating from knee surgery in the US. And concerned observers have asked that even if the videos were recent events as claimed by his team, why would Tinubu indulge in the folly of traveling to UK to ride on a treadmill just to prove that he is healthy while he has importance functions to attend to at home? Is it not a misplaced priority? If he is elected Nigerian president, would he not do the same: fritter away time and resources indulging in frivolities while important state duties suffer?

Clearly, the concatenation of events since his emergence depicts desperation, deception, frustration and everything is snowballing into total confusion. Shortly, before his emergence as the party’s flag bearer he had blatantly declared to the consternation of Nigerians that it was his turn to be the president of the country and that he was ready to fight dirty to achieve his vaulting ambition. Also, he declared that if elected, he would sustain Mr. Buhari’s policies apparently indicating that he has no programs other his selfish ambition to be president. In a desperate bid to cajole and woo the Moslem North, he chose as his running a fellow Moslem, something that elicited much unsavory reaction and debate more so as Kashim Shettima whom he picked was a notorious Boko Haram apologist. Again, in a vain attempt to play down on this obvious blunder, his team was insinuated to have hired unknown and fake Christian clerics to grace the occasion of the unveiling of Shettima at the Yar’Adua Center, Abuja on the 20^th of July, 2022.

Evidently, in the near-absence of any major thing to campaign with, the Tinubu’s team has relied precariously on propaganda, false claims and wrong attributions and these have boomeranged. The use of social media influencers, engagement of media hirelings and hack-writers and the alleged sponsorship of false allegation against the major political opponent—Atiku and Obi—have also failed because the amorphous social media space is out of their control. The team is battling to explain the issues surrounding Tinubu’s many scandals, his shadowy origin and poor performance while in office as governor of Lagos State. The footless narrative by Tinubu supporters about Tinubu building and transforming Lagos was ruptured by the Nigerian public that proved assertively that Lagos is the creation of the colonial government, the Federal government as well as enterprising individuals and that no one individual and no governor can claim to have built Lagos singlehanded and that of all the governors that Lagos has produced, Tinubu’s contribution seems to be the most insignificant. Again, the hypothesis about Tinubu developing people was also torn to shreds by concern Nigerians who pointed out that giving political appointments which is a constitutional requirement of public office holders is not akin to developing people and that appointing people to advance one’s political interest is not equivalent to developing people. Moreover, available records show that Tinubu build no schools, no skills acquisition centers or had any man power development program for the area boys of Lagos during his tenure. By the time he left Lagos, it was still ranked as educationally disadvantaged state with hordes of area-boys and street urchins everywhere. So, whither is his human development credential? Added to this is the fact that under him, there was the establishment of agencies that made life unbearable for the people and the preferment of area-boys.  And extortion, touting and swindling became a bourgeoning business.

Perhaps the most difficult matter confronting Tinubu’s camp was how to handle his health status. The few public appearances that he had made after his emergence as the APC standard bearer were a total disaster and that probably informed the decision by his team to bar him from interviews and public appearances. There are video footages of his trembling hands, wobbly footstep, incoherent voice, slurred and uncoordinated speeches. At the Emir of Gombe Palace where he had gone on a courtesy call, he was videoed dozing off while in a meeting. In the mosque he has been spotted sitting on a chair during Jumat services; something that is allowed only for the very old and very sick. And that explains why he could not attend the NBA and the LCCI conferences attended by the presidential candidates of the other political parties even when the conferences were held in Lagos where he resides. They were also said to be unsettled by the Pirates’ Emi Lokan song that satirized Tinubu’s health condition.

Other signs of desperation by Tinubu and his team include his romance with the Nyesom Wike, the River State governor and PDP stalwart his visit to Jonathan whom he had described in 2015 as a clueless president. It was like the MKO Abiola eating the humble pie by visiting Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe whom he had thoughtlessly scoffed and told that he can do without him and his people earlier, after his return from the US. The likes of Tinubu may appear smart but they are myopic and dyslexic in their thoughts and conducts. They think of now and now without consideration for the future. They are blinded by fleeting considerations, greed and inordinate ambition. Tinubu’s visit to Jonathan whom he once despised, vilified and demonized portrays Tinubu as an inconsistent, hypocritical and a desperate power monger.

Furthermore, obvious signs of frustration can be seen in the utterances and behaviors of members of his team and button boys in search of scapegoats for the imminent failure. The area-boys of Lagos have been placed in overdrive mode and they harassing and extorting Ndigbo in Lagos. There are reported cases of the extortion of the Lagos State Keke operators by the imposition of Tinubu/Shettima stickers and the planned closure of Oyingbo and Ladipo markets on flimsy excuses by the Lagos State government all in an ill-conceived attempt to muzzle the people. Tinibu’s daughter Folashade Tinubu-Ojo was reported in the media to have insulted the Igbo calling them ingrates and she was also reported to have perforce dragged all the market women in Lagos to a rally in honor of her ailing father. Tinubu’s wife Oluremi who is supposed to be a senator was captured in a video threatening to expel the Igbo from Lagos if her husband loses the presidential election. Added to this is the report that there is ban on advert signage for Obi and Atiku in Lagos. No doubt, these are luminous signs of frustration and politics of bitterness and rancor.

But Tinubu and his acolytes in Lagos have shot themselves in the foot by their continued threat to force Ndigbo out of Lagos if Tinubu fails to achieve his vaulting ambition. His hatred for Ndigbo and his resort to ethnic demagoguery will be his ultimate undoing. As it stands now, the only way out of the thrall of area boys in Lagos is to vote against Tinubu otherwise the area-boys will be more emboldened to unleash mayhem on others in the unfortunate event of Tinubu’s victory. The APC has no consideration for us neither does it take responsibility for its actions therefore in this circumstance it is only one without scruples or low self-esteem that will support Tinubu and APC.

The truth is that the failure of his guiles and political artifice and the looming reality of failure seem to have exacerbated Tinubu’s fragile health. He had banked seriously on official manipulation and electoral malfeasance but when that failed in Osun and the declaration of Mr. Buhari to conduct free and fair election and the towering presence of Atiku Abubakar in the North against his sponsored campaign for an all-out southern candidates and the unexpected emergence of the enigmatic Peter Obi who would grab a huge swathe of the votes from the South, frustration and despair set in. And instead of telling the people the truth the campaign team is pushing out the poppycock tale of the APC presidential candidate gallivanting in Europe while the inauguration of his presidential campaign council is postponed indefinitely because of his glaring absence. This is pure deceit. And the implication of this is that if they cannot come out clean to tell Nigerians the true state of affairs concerning Tinubu, it means that if Nigerians are unfortunate to elect him, they will not be transparent and would not be accountable to the people. Honesty and integrity are adjunct to the qualities of a leader.

However, one thing is clear now Tinubu camp media dominance is broken. Nigerian will not be deceived by media propaganda and fake political activism and advocacy by charlatans and mealy-mouthed political pettifoggers pretending to be working for the masses as heretofore. The yoke of hypocritical siege is broken for good.

At this critical phase of our checkered political history, Nigeria needs a leader with character/integrity, competence (mental and physical) and capacity (the patriotic zeal, the willingness and the drive) to work for the unity and progress of the country. Nigeria will not vote for the dotard who would fritter our time on medical tourism abroad, who would sleep when vital state meetings are going on, who would wear diaper, catheter and probably carry potty-chair about for eventuality.

I have reiterated it for the umpteenth time that the adoption of Tinubu by the APC hierarchy is an affront on Nigerians for it implies that the party wants to sustain the status quo and so voting against Tinubu and his party will be the condign reward for their deception and treachery. Tinubu should withdraw from the race immediately and apologize for attempted political fraud or face disgrace at the polls. Indeed, Nigeria must break free from this vicious circle of making electoral mistakes and regretting later.

Gozie Irogboli

An economist, consultant, public policy analyst and a novelist

(goziei@yahoo.com)